Avnet's Brad Kenney Recognized as a 2013 Computerworld Premier 100 IT Leader

PHOENIX --(Business Wire)--

Avnet, Inc. (NYSE: AVT), a leading global technology distributor, today announced that Vice President of Enterprise Infrastructure Brad Kenney was selected by IDG's Computerworld as a 2013 Premier 100 IT Leader honoree. The Premier 100 is a lifetime achievement that spotlights leaders from both the technology and business sides of companies for their exceptional technology leadership and innovative approaches to business challenges.

"Brad has been a vital member of our IT team for more than 25 years, and he has excelled throughout his career in using technology to continually improve Avnet's operational efficiency," said Steve Phillips, senior vice president and CIO, Avnet, Inc., and a fellow Premier 100 IT Leader honoree. "Brad and his team have successfully implemented a series of innovative and practical projects in Avnet's data center that have decreased our IT expenses and reduced our environmental impact. This prestigious award highlights the valuable role that Brad and his team play every day in helping Avnet achieve its business goals."

Under Kenney's leadership, Avnet's data center team developed a green IT culture that has helped the company avoid a multi-million dollar power build out to its North American data center. As a part of this initiative, Kenney and his team have conserved energy through virtualization, a system hibernation script, green lighting, physical improvements, and video conferencing. The initiative has reduced Avnet's data center power consumption by more than six percent, even though its business has significantly grown in both scale and scope during the past even years.

Kenney and his team are also heavily involved in helping Avnet manage the rapid growth of its business critical data, which has more than quadrupled in the last two years to surpass the one petabyte mark. To address this challenge, Kenney and his team recently redesigned Avnet's North American data storage backup systems and processes, and deployed a new data storage management system. This system significantly enhanced Avnet's business continuity capabilities, decreased the time to recovery in the event of a system failure and improved the productivity of its data center team.

"The Premier 100 awards program showcases the exceptional work of a dedicated group of technology-savvy business leaders who are driving huge change in their organizations through IT," said Scot Finnie, editor in chief of Computerworld. "Every day, these exemplary business leaders make strategic technology decisions that track to their organizations' top priorities. These 100 men and women keep a keen eye on the changing landscape of political, economic, regulatory and technology trends that are driving significant shifts in IT. We are very pleased to recognize the leadership and honor the achievements of the 2013 Premier 100 honorees."

The Premier 100 awards ceremony will be one of the highlights of Computerworld's annual Premier 100 IT Leaders Conference, to be held March 3-5, 2013, at the JW Marriott Starr Pass Resort & Spa in Tucson, Ariz. The conference, to be attended by more than 325 influential senior IT managers, will showcase honorees and other IT innovators as they discuss how to create competitive IT organizations.

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About Computerworld

Computerworld is the leading source of technology news and information for IT influencers worldwide, providing peer perspective, IT leadership and business results. Computerworld's award-winning Web site (www.computerworld.com), bi-weekly publication, focused conference series and custom research forms the hub of the world's largest (40+ edition) global IT media network. Computerworld leads the industry with an online audience of over 3.5 million unique, monthly visitors (Omniture (News - Alert), August 2012). Computerworld is published by IDG Enterprise, a subsidiary of International Data Group (IDG), the world's leading media, events, and research company. Company information is available at www.idgenterprise.com.

About Avnet, Inc.

Avnet, Inc. (NYSE: AVT), a Fortune 500 company, is one of the largest distributors of electronic components, computer products and embedded technology serving customers globally. Avnet accelerates its partners' success by connecting the world's leading technology suppliers with a broad base of customers by providing cost-effective, value-added services and solutions. For the fiscal year ended June 30, 2012, Avnet generated revenue of $25.7 billion. For more information, visit www.avnet.com.

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